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This summer Miami Palmetto Senior High School senior Ella Karakadze started a community service program called Saving Suits.
“It’s a non-profit that collects work attire for women who have difficulty finding clothing and those who may not be able to afford it,” she says. “In working with Warm Ears Warm Hearts, I saw how one piece of clothing can change someone’s life, and in doing so for women like me, it’s something I can put all my determination and empathy towards.”
Karakadze knows how important it is to dress for success in corporate America, having a mom in the corporate world.
“The collection drive begins August 8 and will run until September 8. The clothing will be donated to Dress for Success Miami. Information can be found on Instagram @savingsuits.service.
Until recently Karakadze was an ambassador for Warm Ears Warm Hearts, a non-profit that collected winter clothing that was sent to New York City and Chicago to be donated to those in need. Karakadze ran the program out of her home because of COVID protocols. Planning for the collection drive started in September/October with the donations shipped north Thanksgiving week.
When school starts, Karakadze will be heavily involved in the Palmetto Drama program.
She’ll be president of Thespians and hopes to bring back some traditions to Thespians and the theater program that have fallen by the wayside because of COVID protocols and facility construction issues.
This year, Karakadze hopes to bring back a lot of things they used to do in Thespians and the drama program. Things like bonding experiences and performances.
“Theater is extremely expressive and communicative. You talk to each other,” Karakadze said. “Zoom didn’t give us the same bonding. Everyone wants to do so much more now. All in person.”
The good news was the addition of a Black Box Theater, which allowed the drama program to put on SpongeBob the Musical last year.
“We’re hoping to do a spring show, or we’ll do something like we did this year and work around it,” she says. “We’ll figure it out.”
Karakadze started in theater in 2012, and last spring year won the Outstanding Junior Acting Award.
“In 2012 I lived near Area Stage Company. They had a showcase where you could audition,” Karakadze said. “I had liked watching theater, so my parents suggested I try.”
Because she liked poetry, her parents suggested she try doing a monologue. At the time, she was around seven years old. At 10 or 11, she acted in her first big play.
“My first role was in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” she says. “The role was Mr. Salt, he’s Verunka’s dad. It was junior production for the littler kids.”
Outside drama, Karakadze is part of the television production program at Palmetto. She works both in front of the camera as an anchor and behind the scenes.
“I think I prefer behind the camera, even though I love doing theater,” she says.
Karakadze has taken up photography and started making art prints of endangered marine animals that she plans to sell with money going to an organization that works on saving the animals. She wants to educate people on why the animals are critical to the environment.
“It has also gotten me back into art and lets me share my love for marine life in a new way,” she says.
She plans to major in Marine Science and is considering applications to Eckerd College, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast, Nova Southeastern and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
